Signal and indicator for record sheets



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Patented Aug. 6, 1940 lil-:ISSUED` MAR 18 1941 PATENT ori-"ics SIGNALAND INDICATOR FOR RECORD SHEETS Arthur. I. Appleton, Northbrook, Ill.Application February 26, 1940, Serial No. 320,831

6 Claims.,

A well known system for. keeping records ofk stocks of goods on handincludes with each record sheet an indicator which shows at a glance howmuch stock is on hand, in the terms of the number of weeks or other timeunits required for its consumption; thus providingk a ready means forwarning the person in charge of keeping up stocks when it is'time toorder an additional supply. In a large business, where there may be manydifferent items in stock, the time required for filling an order afterthe placing of the latter may vary greatly. Therefore, the mere factthat the indicator may show that there remains on hand a supply longenough to last a certain number of weeks or months is not, of itself,sufcient to x the time when a re-order of a given article should bemade.

The object of the present invention is to improve the aforesaidindicating means so that 2.0; in addition to keeping the person inlcharge informed of the state of the stock with respect to eachindividual item, it also gives a definite signal when the time has comefor re-ordering, regardless of whether it takes a few weeks or gyperhapsmany months to have the order lled.

A further object of the present invention is to improve the oldindicating means without making any radical changes in the mainstructural features whereby it l,will remain to all intents :y andpurposes substantially the same as the old device while acting as anindicator of quantities of various items in stock or on hand.

For one reason or another it may be undesirable to re-order a great manydifferent items at about the same time, instead of spreading thereorders over a period of some length. A further. object of the presentinvention is to provide means to indicate at any given moment therelation in time of dates'when re-orders of all items Y should be madewhereby, if it should happen that an objectionably large number ofre-orders fall on the same date, some of those re-orders could be madesomewhat earlier and others somewhat later than would normally be thecase, and thus secure a distribution of those re-orders.

The various features of novelty whereby my invention is characterizedwill hereinafter be pointed out with particularity in the claims; but,for a full understanding of my invention and of -its objects andadvantages, reference may be had to the following detailed descriptiontaken in connection with the accompanying drawing,

wherein: Y

Figure 1 is a yplan view, a fragment of the top leaf or cover beingpartly broken away, of a connected group of records or sheet holders,each equipped with one of my improved indicator and signal devices; Fig.2 is a plan view of one of the movable slides forming part of theindicator and signal devices; Fig. 3 is a plan view, on a somewhatlarger scale, of a fragment of the marginal portion of one of theholders, showing the warning marking thereon; and Fig. 4 is a section,on an enlarged scale, on line 4 4 of Fig. 1, the lower marginal portionof only the upperlo most sheet holder being shown.

Inthe drawing there is illustrated a group of v leaves or holders forrecord sheets forming part of a record-keeping and ling system which isbeing used'quite generally and, for the sake of brevity, the detaileddescription will be confined to this particular use of the presentinvention.

Referring to the drawing, I, 2, 3, t and 5 represent five flat backs orholders for record sheets, such as indicated at 6. These backs orkholders overlie each other so that the lower yends thereof are disposedin shingle-like formation, whereby a narrow marginal portion of each isexposed. In thecommercial form of the device, the back or holder hasattached thereto, over the entire marginal portion along the lower edge,a strip of tough paper 'l folded along the longitudinal center so as toprovide in the loop at the lower endthereof a pocket in which a slide 8may be positioned. The outer side of this folded por- 30,

tion is cut' away for one-half of its length, namely the righthand half,as viewed in Fig. 1; Therefore, when a slide, such as indicated at 8,composed of a long narrow strip of Celluloid f or the like and having atone end a laterallyprojecting finger piece 9 and of a length slightlygreater than one-half the width'of a holder, is inserted-in a pocket,the slide may be pushed. into the pocket until onlya small sectionthereof, at one end, protrudes. The lower marginal por- 4U tio-n of eachholder is bound by means of a U- shapedy strip I3 of transparentCelluloid or other suitable material.

On the part 1 of the holder, directly behind the slide, is a row l0 ofnumbers distributed 45 across almost one-halfof the entire width of theholder. As in the case of the devices now in commercial use, thevertical edge at the exposed end of the slide, which continues up to thetop of the finger piece, serves as a pointer to cooperate 50 with therow of numbers andmay, for example, indicate the quantity of stock ofany particular article that is on hand, measured by the number of weekswhich will be required for the consumption oi such stock. Thus, forexample, the 55 slide on the holder 5 may indicate that there is a fourweeks supply, of a given article, o n hand; the slide on the holder 4may show the presence of a six weeks supply of another article, etc.

In accordance with the present invention, I place on the front face ofthe rear fold of the strip 1 slightly in advance of each row of numbersa warning marking which may conveniently be a little red disk I I. Eachslide is provided with a hole I2 which, in one position of the slide,registers with the red disk which therefore serves as a warning. Whilethe slides may be composed of opaque material, they usually are made ofsemitransparent Celluloid. In the drawing the slides are marked orshaded to indicate that they are green. Consequently, except when thehole I 2 registers with the red disk, the latter is covered and, in theparticular embodiment illustrated, appears simply as a dark spot, as inthe case of the lowermost slide and the third slide from the bottom inFig. 1.

'Ihe hole in each slide is spaced just far enough away from the end ofthe slide that constitutes the pointer to register with the red spotwhen the pointer registers with that number which indicates the lowestpoint to which the stock of a given article should reach beforere-ordering. Thus, the upper of the ve slides illustrated points to thenumber 4, the second slide points to the number 6, and the third slidepoints to the number S, meaning that the article which is recorded onthe holder 5 must be re-ordered when the qnantity drops down to a fourweeks supply; that a re-order must be made of the article recorded onthe holder 4, when the quantity of that article drops to a six weekssupply; and that the article recorded on the sheet in holder 3 must bere-ordered when there is only a nine weeks supply left.

It will thus be seen that Ythe slides may be set from time totime toindicate the quantities of various materials that remain in stock and,when it becomes necessary to replenish the stock of any given article,provides unmistakable warning. By providing sets of slides all differingfrom each other as to the distance of the holes therein from theirpointer ends, it is possible not only initially to provide each group ofrecord holders with slides to give the proper Warning in the case ofeach article, regardless of the difference in the length of timerequired to have orders lled; but if for any reason or other it is foundthat one must order sooner than was originally anticipated, or thatperhaps ordering could be delayed for a substantial time, the slidewhich was originally inserted in the holder relating to that particulararticle can be removed and be replaced by another slide having the holetherein differently located.

If it be desired to give a preliminary warning or signal before the holein a slide reaches the red disk, the disk may be provided with a tailsuch as indicated at I4, projecting lengthwise past one or twograduations in the scale with which a slide cooperates. Thus, forexample, thelowermost slide in Fig. 1 must move past two spaces in thescale before the hole registers with the red disk, but the free end ofthe tail I4 is already exposed through the hole.

If the center of the hole in the slide is spaced apart from the rstgraduation a distance equal to the spacings between graduations, thenumberV which happens to be visible through the hole in the slide in anygiven position of the latter indicates exactly how many weeks or othertime intervals must elapse before it is normally necessary to re-order.Thus, in the slide on record holder 3, the numeral 9 is visible throughthe hole and in the lowermost slide the number 2 registers with thehole. This means that the article of which the record is kept on holder3 must be reordered in nine weeks or other time intervals while thearticle of which the record is kept on holder I requires re-ordering intwo weeks or time intervals.

While I have illustrated and described with particularity only a singlepreferred form of my invention, I do not desire to be limited to theexact structural details thus illustrated and described; but intend tocover all forms and arrangements which come within the denitions of myinvention constituting the appended claims.

I claim:

1. A combined quantity indicator and warning device for use inconnection with the keeping of records of stocks of goods, comprising astationary element and a longitudinally-movable slide mounted on saidelement, said element having a line of graduations extending along theslide for cooperation with the slide to indicate quantities of stock onhand, said element also having underneath the slide at one end of thegraduations a warning mark, and said slide having therein a hole thatregisters with the said warning mark whenever the slide is in a positionindicating that the quantity of stock has been reduced to anypredetermined amount.

2. A combined quantity indicator and warning device for use inconnection with the keeping of records of stocks of goods, comprising astationary element and a longitudinally-movable slide mounted on saidelement, said element having a line of graduations extending along theslide for cooperation with a pointer on the slide to indicate quantitiesof stock on hand, said element also having underneath the slide at oneend of the graduations a warning mark, and said slide having therein ahole that registers with the said warning mark in a given position ofthe slide; the distance between said hole and the pointer on the slidebeing determined by the minimum quantity of goods that must still be instock at the time a warning signal is desired. l

3. A combined indicator and warning device for use in connection withthe keeping of records of stocks of goods, comprising avstationaryelement and a longitudinally-movable slide mounted on said element, saidelement having a line of graduations extending along the slide forcooperation with a pointer on the slide to indicate quantities of stockon hand, said element also having underneath the slide at one end of thegraduations a warning mark, and said slide having therein a hole thatregisters with the said warning mark in a given position of the slideand through which the graduations may be seen one at a time as the slideis moved, the distance between said hole and the pointer on the slidebeing determined by the minimum quantity of goods that must still be instock at the time a warning signal is desired.

4. A combined indicator and warning device for use in connection withthe keeping of records of stocks of goods, comprising a stationaryelement and a longitudinally-movable slide mounted on said element, saidelement having a line of graduations representing time intervalsextending along the slide for cooperation with the slide, a pointer onthe slide for cooperation with said graduations, said element alsohaving underneath the slide at the beginning of the graduations awarning mark, and said slide having therein a hole that registers withthe said Warning mark Whenever the pointer registers with anypredetermined graduation.

5. A combined quantity indicator andwarning device for use in connectionwith the keeping of records of stocks of goods, comprising a stationaryelement and a longitudinally-movable slide mounted on said element, saidelement having a line of graduations extending along the slide forcooperation with a pointer on the slide to indicate quantities of stockon hand in terms of the number of units of time required for consumptionof the stock, said element also having underneath the slide near thebeginning of the graduations a Warning mark, and said slide havingtherein a hole that registers With the said warning mark whenever theslide is in a position indicating that the stock Will be consumed in anypredetermined number of time units; whereby, by providing a plurality ofslides having holes positioned at different points therein, a Warningposition may be given When any desired number of time units must elapsebefore a stock of goods is exhausted.

6. The combination with a plurality of sheets for keeping stock records,of a lengthwise-movable slide mounted on the corresponding margin ofeach sheet parallel to an edge, each of said margins having thereon aline of graduations arranged lengthwise of and underneath thecorresponding slide, an end of each slide serving as a pointercooperating with the adjacent graduations, each slide having therein ahole adapted to register With one after another of said graduations asthe slide is moved, each hole being spaced from the aforesaid end of itsslide a distance corresponding to any desired number of graduationswhich may Vary for the different slides, and a Warning mark on eachsheet in position to be exposed through the hole in the correspondingslide when the pointer end of the latter` registers with the graduationthat is the aforesaid number of graduations from the beginning of theadjacent line of graduations.

ARTHUR I. APPLETON.

